EVENT #59: $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em
ENTRIES: 2,155
PRIZE POOL: $2,909,250
FIRST PLACE PRIZE: $531,037
PLACES PAID: 216
DATES: June 29-July 2, 2015
Alex Lindop Wins WSOP Gold Bracelet and $531K
25-Year-Old Poker Pro Becomes Second British Winner of 2015 Series
2006 World Champ Jamie Gold Makes Deepest Run Since Main Event Win, Finishes Fifth
MEET THE LATEST WSOP GOLD BRACELET CHAMPION
Name: Alex Lindop
Birthplace: Stoke-on-Trent, U.K.
Age: 25
Current Residence: Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Marital Status: Single
Children: None
Profession: Professional Poker Player
Number of WSOP Cashes: 4
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances: 1
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories: 1
Best Previous WSOP Finish: 39th (2011)
Total WSOP Earnings: $547,307
Personal Facts: Lindop has been playing poker fulltime since age 17
[Note: All statistics above include the results of this tournament]
Alex Lindop is the latest gold bracelet winner at the 2015 World Series of Poker.
As the annual summer poker series continues to wind down and enters the final weekend before the start of the Main Event Championship, Lindop came out on top in the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tourney, which attracted another huge field totaling 2,155 players. This was the 59th of 68 gold bracelet events on the schedule.
Lindop seized the largest share of a nearly $3 million prize pool, taking home $531,037. This was his biggest career win in poker, by far. It also marked his first gold bracelet victory.
Alex Lindop is a 25-year-old poker pro from Stoke-On-Trent, U.K. He has been playing poker full time since he was 17-years-old. Lindop began playing online at age 18, and has primarily concentrated on cash games. His preferred game is Pot-Limit Omaha. Lindop previously cashed in a number of European Poker Tour events and tournaments played in England.
Lindop’s WSOP resume now includes four cashes, but nothing on the magnitude of a victory like this. He’s attended the WSOP 4 out of the past 5 years since turning of legal age (21). Previous in-the-money finishes included 110th, 62nd, and 39th-place showings, which included his biggest previous cash of just over $8,000. Hence, this marked a huge breakthrough victory.
“I really don’t know what I’m going to do with the money,” Lindop said afterward. “I guess when I get back home, I’ll have to throw a big party.”
The tournament was played over a four-day stretch which was extended into overtime when the original three days still left four players remaining. The fourth day included a real see-saw battle, as the four competitors – including Lindop, Yorane Kerignard, Aurelien Guiglini and Haixia Zhang – all jockeyed for position over a tumultuous four-hour run towards the homestretch, after which the British player locked up the win.
Heads-up play began with Lindop holding a 3-to-1 chip advantage versus Guiglini. The duel didn’t last long. Lindrop’s 4-3 bested Guiglini’s Q-5 when the final board ran out – 4-5-3-3-Q. Lindrop’s full house crushed Guiglini’s two pair.
“It really feels amazing to win,” Lindop said. “I’d had a few deep runs before, but they always fizzled. To come here and have this happen is just amazing. There are no words to describe the feeling I have right now.”
Among those who made the final table, the most notable was Jamie Gold, the 2006 Main Event Champion. Gold had not returned to a WSOP final table since that remarkable victory nine years ago, and ended up finishing in 5th place in this tournament, which was good for a six-figure score.
Haixia Zhang’s final table appearance and 4th-place finish was also worth noting. She won last year’s Ladies World Championship and returned to the same stage of her prior glory, this time collecting another big payout.
Also of note were the top three finishes by two French poker players – Aurelien Guiglini and Yorane Kerignard. Oddly enough, no French players have yet won a gold bracelet at this year’s series, but these two players certainly came close, finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Following Lindop’s finish in the top spot, the descending order of results was as follows:
Second Place: Aurelien Guiglini, from Paris, France finished as the runner up. His consolation prize amounted to $330,578. Guiglini is a 33-year-old product manager. He learned how to play poker online.
Third Place: Yorane Kerignard, from Aux En Provence, France finished in 3rd place, which paid out $229,787. He is a 30-year-old poker pro who has previously won a World Poker tour title, and made the final table of a European Poker Tour event. This was his sixth time to cash at the series, and deepest run, to date.
Fourth Place: Haixia Zhang, from Los Gatos, CA finished in 4th place, which paid $165,492. She’s a business owner who won last year’s Ladies World Championship, which earned her a gold bracelet. She now has in excess of $300,000 in winnings in just the past two years.
Fifth Place: Jamie Gold, a 45-year-old investor and former talent scout from Malibu, CA finished in 5th place, which paid $120,952. This was Gold’s sixth time to cash at the series, dating back to his championship victory nine years ago.
Sixth Place: Luisfabio Fonseca Freitas, from Brazil, finished in 6th place, which paid $89,473. This marks Freitas' second career WSOP cash. His first cash came last year in a $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em event.
Seventh Place: Jason Herron, from Adrian, MI finished in seventh place for $67,508. This marked Herron's first WSOP cash.
Eighth Place: Joshua Evans finished in 8th place, which paid $50,897. Evans is a two-time Circuit gold ring winner with 35 WSOP Circuit cashes to his name. Evans finished 3rd in the 2011 National Championship. He then recorded his largest ever WSOP score less than a month later by earning a runner-up finish in a $1,500 WSOP event for $372,498.
Ninth Place: Rick Alvarado was the first player eliminated from the final table. Alvarado, from Ontario, CA collected $39,085 for his 9th place finish. Alvardo's largest ever WSOP cash came just one week ago when he finished in 7th place in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for $65,799.
OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS:
Aside from the final table finishers, other gold bracelet winning players who cashed included – Igor Dubinsky, Athanasios Polychronopoulos, Gavin Griffin, Andy Frankenberger, William Kakon, Jackie Glazier, Dutch Boyd, Brandon Wong, Barry Shulman, Brian Yoon, Steve Sung, David “ODB” Baker, Mitch Schock, Davide Suriano, Jeff Madsen, and Jordan Smith.
Ari Engel, one of the WSOP Circuit’s most successful players (7 gold rings and 42 cashes), finished in 14th place.
EVENT DIRECT LINKS:
For this event’s results, visit:
http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/results.asp?grid=1136&tid=14259
For Alex Lindop’s official player profile page, visit:
http://www.wsop.com/players/playerprofile.asp?playerID=121724
For the Live Reporting Log for this event, please visit:
http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/updates.asp?grid=1136&tid=14259
For photos from this event, please visit:
http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/photos.asp?grid=1136&tid=14259
For official winner photo, please visit:
http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/reports/14259-winner-photo.jpg
For the live stream archive of this event, please visit:
http://www.wsop.com/videos/?vcat=59
(Note: Will appear 48 hours after event concludes)